


The first Avenger and his best girl (also superhero)

by Menatiera



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Agent Carter timeline, Bedsharing, Betty Carver - Freeform, Domestic arguing, F/M, Firsts, Howlies - Freeform, Modern Day, Steggy Positivity Week, Steggy Positivity Week 2017, Steggy in Hogwarts au, Tropes, War Era, characters in Hogwarts au, sort of, steggyweek 2017, steggyweek 2k17, supersoldier Peggy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-11 04:50:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11141349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menatiera/pseuds/Menatiera
Summary: My tumblr ficlets inspired (and being a bit late) by the 2017 Steggy Positivity Week. I've heard about it two days before the end of the week and started writing at the last day, but whatever - Steggy deserves love each week, right?





	1. Discovering Betty Carver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1: _Agent Carter Timeline_  
>  Steve doesn't stay in ice for long. Howard finds him a few years later, so he can be with Peggy. Also, he can discover a certain "Captain America Adventure Program" in the radio, with a so called Betty Carver...

“What the fucking holy hell?!” Steve breathed out in a whisper as the radio was muted in the end of The Captain America Adventure Program, and he looked totally stunned. Not in a good way.

Peggy almost laughed out loud. She needed every ounce of her spy practice not to do it, as the furious anger took the shock’s place on Steve’s face.

Steve being angry was among the most beautiful sights of the world. When he was calm, or joyful, or even sad, people were apt to forget who (and what) he was. The nicest person on Earth, sure, but also the world’s deadliest weapon in human skin, and he could be as gracious and terrifying as a caged tiger.

Now he seemed to be ready to march into a war zone again.

“Who the hell is responsible for this? They need to be fired,” he continued to circle up and down in the room, hands gesticulate wildly. “Didn’t they have any fleeting idea who you are? Didn’t they know that you gave half of the intel we used? That we would have lost the war without you? That you kicked more ass than all the Howlies combined?! Or did they, and yet they dare to air this disrespectful, scandalous and… and…” He made himself more and more furious, until he suddenly started off to the door. “I’m going to tell them!”

“Steve, wait!” Peggy jumped to her feet and followed him a little too late as he stormed out. If she was honest with herself, she was a bit impressed. Almost one year at the front of the greatest war, two and a half year spent frozen in the Arctic, revived by the best medical team, poked by doctors for another five months, and yet it didn’t change him at all. Still the same hot-headed mess.

Her mess, apparently.

She had to admit, watching Steve go haywire behind closed doors was fun, but she didn’t want a scene. If she desired one, she could do it for herself, thank you very much. There was a reason she didn’t go and break the door down to get to the radio producers. Mostly because as annoying as Betty Carver and her role was in the radio play, it was useful. Not exactly to her, but to the public, at least.

And yet she couldn’t stop smiling as she hurried to block Steve’s way.

The force of him trying to defend her honor (though it was totally unnecessary and he knew that for sure) was among the most heartwarming experiences of Peggy’s life.

Turned out, she didn’t need to actually stop him by force - he halted abruptly as a new thought occurred to him, and he stared at Peggy with a horrid face. “Does Dottie knows about this?”

Peggy stopped as well, a few feet away from him, and realization hit her like a ton of bircks. “Oh my”, she whispered. Having someone like Dottie on her tail was strange enough, but if she ever finds out Betty Carver is supposed to be her counterpart… “She should never hear this. I’ll never hear the end of it!”


	2. Just a day in Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2.: _crossover._ Skinny Steve may be the littlest one among the sixth year boys of Hogwarts, but it never stops him from getting into fights. Especially if he has to defent a girl's honor. Even if said girl does not need saving at all.

Mouth bleeding and eye blackening, Steve still stood straight.

“What is the meaning of this?” Umbridge, officially the new headmaster, unofficially the most hated teacher of Hogwarts and probably an enchanted frog, arrived. Johann Schmidt, seventh year headboy of Slytherin, answered her without hesitance.

“Rogers lashed out and attacked me without any reason!”, he complained like a toddler. Well, that was expectable from him: his big mouth and mad moves only last as long as his safety. 

“LIAR!” Steve almost roared, and Peggy had to grab his arm to stop him from launching himself at Schmidt again, though she did let him go as soon as he seemed to stay in place. It wouldn’t end well for sure - no surprise, since the other boy was at least twice the size of Rogers, with more muscle mass, longer arms, and probably proper fighting practice.

Schmidt seemed to be unscratched. Naturally.

The curse Peggy used on him didn’t leave marks, and was delayed so it would effect him later, therefore no one will suspect her. _‘Because that’s how you deal with shit like this’_ , she wanted to lecture Steve, _‘not driving head first to the nearest wall’._

“He insulted Peggy and attacked her and tried to grab her… her…” He couldn’t seem to make himself say the word “breast” out loud, so he just blushed even more, despite his face being already red from the blood rushing in his veins because of the fight. “I stopped him”, he finished the report instead.

Technically, that was true. Schmidt was probably too amused by the feral (and totally ineffective) way Steve jumped at him to continue his attempts, so it worked. Typical Gryffindor behavior, if anyone asked Peggy. But she was kind of grateful for it, because the distraction gave her the opportunity to plant a few nasty charms and curses on Schmidt.

“And you thought getting into a muggle-style fist fight is proper behavior in Hogwarts?” Umbridge sing-songed, ignoring the start and only focusing on the part which gave her the opportunity to punish a Gryffindor student instead of one of her beloved Slytherin and Inquisitorial Squad member.

Peggy wasn’t a Ravenclaw for nothing, so she understood her motivations pretty well. It still disgusted her, but it made her calculable. She usually also managed to count on the actions of the Squad members - this attack was the exception, or at least it seemed. And she definitely didn’t count with Steve, so here they were.

In the end, both she and Rogers got detention, and Schmidt walked away without any sort of consequence. Peggy just blinked a few times, nodded, and started to plan her revenge. Umbridge clearly knew nothing about the creativity of an insulted Ravenclaw student - well, she’ll find out sooner than later. And Schmidt - well, he was technically a dead man, he just didn’t know it yet.

But first of all…  
“You know you are an idiot, right?”  
… she had to deal with Steve.

“I know.” His smile was the sweetest one, bloody teeth and all. It shouldn’t have been nice, and yet it was. “I thought a little time would help you to make those creative spells you often use, and maybe I hoped I’ll get the punishment, not you”, he explained himself.

“My statement still stands.”

“I know”, he shrugged. “Wanna come with me to the kitchen? I betcha the elves will give us some pie if we tell them about this!”

“They will give us some anyway”, she sighed, and grabbed his hand.


	3. Stepping out of the machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3.: _Firsts._ Peggy becoming a supersoldier too. The first moments' experience is fascinating.

“How are you feeling?”, Steve asked.

Peggy was speechless. Now she really understood how stupid her question was, back in the beginning, when Steve was the one stepping out of the pod. Everything felt different, yet everything remained the same. It was… confusing. It was like suddenly everything was moved to the left by half an inch in a well-known room: to an outsider it might seem right but to someone who lived her life in that room, the sight was totally alien.

The colors were more vivid, the lights too bright, the smells too strong, the sounds too loud. A car honked on the street and it was nearly deafening. Someone sneezed and Peggy flinched from the loudness of it. The parfume of a nurse made her stomach flip uncomfortably.

Steve smiled and it made her heart melt. That was the second thing she noticed - everything was amplified on the inside, too. A doctor approached her with a needle, and she became more annoyed than if he was trying to stab her with a knife. Someone offered her a glass of water and she wanted to plant a kiss on her face out of gratitude.

Steve touched her hand and she lost all of her breath because of the joy that overrun her. She thought earlier that she loved Steve. But compared to her feelings now… that seemed like a passing fad compared the serum-enhanced emotions of her. She tried to comprehend it, but it was nearly unbearable. She was sure she smiled like an idiot, and she made doe-eyes on him and she wished for his presence. Did Steve felt the same way since his serum? How was anyone even able to function while overwhelmed with this amount of love toward someone else? It wasn’t just passion. It wasn’t just respect, or just fondness. It was more than she could ever describe.

She knew, in every heartbeat, that she could be happy and content with him. She knew they were fitting together perfectly. She knew that losing Steve would destroy something permanently in her. She knew that she’ll never feel the same to anybody else.

She looked him in the eyes and somehow she was sure that her feelings were requited with not less love. Also, she realized, she didn’t answered his question and Steve started to freak out by her shellshocked silence.

She smiled back at him. _“Marry me”_ , she blurted out without thinking. The serum didn't change her voice, but still she heard it somehow differently, and flinched because of the experience.

“What?” Now Steve seemed as shocked as she felt herself.

“I love you.” She wanted to explain better, she needed him to know how she felt, but the words were lost halfway out because they couldn’t describe it truly anyway. So she said this three instead. It seemed to be enough for Steve to understand, because his face lit up like candles in a christmas tree. “I love you and I want to spend my life with you by my side. I want to marry you.”

Any other man Peggy knew might have protested against the way she stated it, or the fact that she didn’t wait patiently for him to ask, really, but Steve just smiled and was genuinely touched.

“In that case, Miss Carter, Peggy, my love, it would be an honor to be your husband.”


	4. Superheroes out of villains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4: _Modern Day._ Sometimes even the best couples argue a bit. Peggy doesn't let Steve get away with any bullshit. (Dialogue only.)

“For God’s sake, Steven, you are a superhero!”

“That’s the point, Peggy! I’m supposed to be a superhero, I do save the world on a regular basis! I don’t have time for this.”

“And what do you think I do? Let me guess, like, folding paper airplanes?!”

“You promised you’ll NEVER bring that up again!”

“Oh really?”

“Don’t you dare narrowing your eyes on me threatening like this, I didn’t start this, and you fight dirty.”

“Last time I checked that was among the many reasons you fell for me.”

“Yeah, but it’s not fair to use against me, Pegs!”

“Everything’s fair in love and war.”

“Maybe, but we should be the love part, and it starts to feel more and more like the war part.”

“You are not allowed to joke about the war.”

“I was also there, Peggy, I have every right to joke about it. It’s called a coping mechanism nowadays.”

“Don’t try to change the subject! I don’t care with the twenty-first century right now.”

“Well, you’ve lived in this timeline for a while now with me…”

“Yes, with you, Steven! And you know what else is great about this time? Divorce is so much easier than back in our days!”

“I repeat myself: you fight dirty.”

“But it’s working, right, dear?”

“Oh, fuck. Right. All right. I admit defeat. I promise I’ll never forget doing the laundry again. I’m sorry. Okay?”

“You better be! Okay, apology accepted. Let’s bake a pie or something to celebrate it, shall we?”

“I love you, Peggy.”

“I love you too, Steve. Still need to do the chores.”

“Hey, I’ve already surrendered!”

“Sorry, honey, just needed to be sure.”

“You are a menace, Peggy Cater-Rogers.”


	5. That one night with the Howlies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5.: _Tropes_ : bedsharing. Sort of...  
> A mission goes haywire, and Peggy misses her extraction. But she's lucky enough to run to the Howlies. Meanwhile, Bucky is tired.

It was cold, Steve had to admit, but he still was better to sit without proper blanket than any other member of the team. They were ‘just’ humans, after all. He burned like a stove and was unable to get sick since the serum anyway, so with a bit of additional food on the morning he should be okay. The temperature was maybe a bit above the freezing point, but with not much. Some snow fell two days ago, but it already mostly melted by now. His breath made interesting smoke formations, and his hands shook a bit as he clutched to his shield. Okay, so maybe he was cold. Who cared? They had bigger problems than that.

“Damnit, Steve!”, Peggy hissed. Steve tried to ignore it.

She was the one who used Steve’s sleeping bag right now, since she didn’t have her own. She didn’t plan to stick with them. Actually, none of them expected to even meet each other, but when Peggy run into them among the woods, fleeting from some nazi soldiers after succesfully pulling some spy stunt on them, neither of them complained. The Howlies got the chance to kick some ass and Peggy got the chance to be safe for a while. (At least, as safe as anyone could be behind front lines anyway.) 

Steve asked, once, what she accomplished, and got some cryptic answer which included ‘the Sea of Tranquility’, her grandmother’s swan and a couple of coordinates, and he was wiser than ask again. She’ll tell if needed.

“Steve, come on, don’t freeze yourself up.”

The offer was more than tempting, that’s why Steve had to refuse it every time she mentioned it.

“It would be highly inappropriate, Peggy”, he whispered instead, forcing his tone to be calm and collected. Luckily no one was able to tell in the dark that in his pants he was everything than that.

“Dying of hypothermia because you are a prude would be more inappropriate”, she answered dryly.

“I won’t invade your personal space or force my company on you, Peggy, so sharing a sleeping bag is not acceptable”, he explained again, feeling the exhaustion creeping on him. He didn’t slept the night before this, taking watch instead, so he’d need at least a few hours of sleep by now.

“How the hell would it be invading if I invited you?” She groaned, frustration clear in her tone. Steve wondered for a moment how easily Peggy won the hearts’ of the Howlies just by her easy way of swearing. “You are a gentleman, I get it, but it’s nothing about force. It’s practical. Stop sulking and get some shut eye.”

Steve tried to think straight really hard. He tried to think about strategies, about boring debriefings, about the war and people dying, in the hope his erection will get the memo and stops presenting itself. But it wasn’t working. Doing multiple things at the same time was his strong suit even before the serum, and especially after that, so he had no problem coming up with attacking tactics or worrying for his unit, and at the same time imagining himself slipping into that sleeping bag, but with full intent to stay awake for a couple of hours with Peggy and doing things... things that would include lots of kissing and lots of touching, things that could make Peggy moan so loud that even the Germans would hear, things that could make Steve scream of pleasure... in short, things that one should never want to do with a colleague of his. Not even if said colleague is the most beautiful dame walking on earth ever.

He sat on his hands to stop himself from reaching out. He wanted to pet Peggy’s hair and then kissing her, pressing their bodies together, until they could feel each other’s heartbeats on their own, then slowly stripping her out of those dirty, unnecessary clothes and…

“Steve, come on.”

He really wished for a cold shower right now.

“I can still go on for a day, Peggy, it’s okay.”

“Steve, you don’t have to act like a martyr, it’s not…”

“OH, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” Bucky was able to shout at them even when he was whispering. It was kind of impressive. He sat up abruptly and stared at them. Steve was more or less sure without amplified senses he couldn’t actually saw anything in the dark, but he made the proper impression. “I get it, you two lovebirds, I TOTALLY get it, but I totally DON’T CARE. It’s been a fucking hard day, hell, a goddamned hard year, so I need and want my sleep. SHUT UP. Steve, climb into that fucking sleeping bag or I swear to God I’ll put you inside in pieces. Fucking moron. Ma’am, with all due respect, you do whatever the hell you want with him, just do it quietly. Thank you very much.”

After Bucky finished, they all stared at each other motionless for a few heartbeats, while agreeing murmurs arrived from at least two more sleeping bags. Steve blushed furiously, and he had no idea how Peggy felt, but wasn’t brave enough to look at her and figure it out.

“What are you waiting for? C’mon, Stevie, I mean it…”

Peggy opened up the sleeping bag without any words, and Steve, defeated, did as they said. He climbed next to her awkwardly and hoped for the best.

He really had no idea which is the best option here, but he would bet it wasn’t gonna happen to them.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6: _Quotes, lyrics, etc._  
>  It was pretty hard to choose only one, but after some long days I settled with some lines from the beautiful song [Meet me on the battlefield](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZrddJPGp1I) by SVRCINA. I listen it a lot. _"We carry on through the storm / Tired soldiers in this war / Remember what we're fighting for..."_  
>  Summary: Peggy still talks to Steve.

Peggy closes the door after them and leans against it for long moments. The connection between the cool metal and her forehead makes the racing rhythm of her heartbeat slowing down a bit. Behind closed eyelids, Daniel’s betrayed expression is haunting her. She sniffs a bit, straightens her back, and quickly rummages her office for any listening devices. It is a habit that proved itself useful - after all, she’s one of the directors of a secret spy organization, there’s no surprise in spying attempts on her. She checks the drawers, the lamps, the bookshelves, the bottoms of the furniture, and this time she finds nothing.

She releases a relaxed huff, and collapses into her armchair. “Sometimes I’m not entirely sure I can do this”, she confesses to the thin air. Looks up, like she’s expecting an answer, which never arrives. She sighs again. “Daniel may be mad at me forever for firing him, but her wife will be thankful during her entire life. And he doesn’t know yet about the job offer he'll get next week. He will be okay. He won’t have to deal with Jack’s assholeness, while he'll still be able to do what he’s best at, only at a safe environment. Everyone wins.” She knows it is silly, reasoning like this, while she doesn’t have to explain herself to anyone, but it helps to calm herself. She smiles sadly at the thought.

“It was the right decision, and still it makes me sad. I’ll miss Daniel. He’s the closest I have to you. You would have liked him, y’know.” The wind shakes the shutter on the window, and she shrugs helplessly. “Or not. Maybe you’d be jealous because he’s my friend. You were always full of self-doubt when it came to dames, weren’t you, darling?”

She glances to the door, but she knows no one will bother her. This is the reason she checks her office so often and why she's careful with her behaviour around others. They’d gladly send her to a mental asylum if they’d find out she still talks to Steve, years and years after his disappearance. Everyone knows the good Captain is dead. Peggy knows that, too - she accepted it, more or less, as much as a person can accept the loss of a loved one.

But talking to Steve helps her cleaning her head, and making the hard decisions, and also serves as a moral compass when she’s in doubt. When she feels a light breeze while she talks, or the lightbulb flickers after one of her sentences, she likes to pretend it’s a reply from Steve. This helps even more than consulting with Mr. Jarvis, which is quite a surprise, considering it’s all in her imagination. Edwin always says she needs to rely on others more, she doesn’t have to do everything alone, and that’s true, but when she’s in doubt, she still needs to consult with herself first. So she talks to Steve.

“I wish you were here”, she admits, maybe the thousandth time since she first summoned his memory for her own selfish purpose. “I wish I could talk to you real. I feel so alone, Steve.” She thinks about the ones who stand beside her. The Jarvises, Howard, Daniel, Rose… Even Jack, sometimes. But she misses the Howlies (who didn't want more war in their lives, not even spy kinds, thank you very much, but had to decline her offer when she wanted them to work for her again) so bad, and she misses Steve more than anything. She can particularly remember, how it felt when she had him as a partner at her side. How great it felt working with someone who fully trusted and respected her. How exciting it was for her to match him even though he was the supersoldier. How easily they resolved any stress in the other, to replace it with a totally different kind of frustration. How his eyes shined when he looked ad Peggy. How pleasure warmth she felt herself full with while looking at him.

“If you were here, we’d be married by now. I would have proposed to you before you’d gather your courage to ask me, don’t you think? You’d be the director of SHIELD instead of me… or, more accurately, we’d manage to do it together. It’s spy business, after all, and you were not good at that ever.” She has to chuckle by the memories it brings up, but her smile fades fast.

“Sometimes I think you’re the only one who keeps me from going mad”, Peggy admits quietly. “Is it mad that I miss the war? It was so simple. It was easy to tell the difference between good and bad, friend and enemy. Nowadays everything is grey, everything is a matter of perspective. We once stood tall and proud in the face of the danger, Steve, and now it seems all I’m doing is making compromises to avoid the bigger bad… I’m tired, Steve. I just want you here. I want you to remind me what were we fighting for. I want you to punch bullies in the face, damn the consequences. I want you to embrace me after a hard day’s work. I want to have a home worth going there each night.”

She realizes there’s tears rolling down on her face, and she swipes them off gently. She stands up. “I want to believe you are hearing me somehow, so please… if I’m right… come back to me, darling. Come back before I forget the exact shade of your eyes, or the touch of your lips on mine. Come back for me, Steve, because I’m gonna be waiting for you even after I won’t remember who I’ll be waiting for.”


End file.
